The inhibition of Caco-2 proliferation by astaxanthin from Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous.

PURPOSE: To investigate the efficiency of natural astaxanthin that has been extracted from Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous in inhibiting the proliferation and viability of colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line (Caco-2; colon cancer cells). METHODOLOGY: Caco-2 cells and normal human oralkeratinocytes (NOKs) were treated with different concentrations of extracted astaxanthin, ranging from 0.075 to 10 mg ml-1, for 24, 48 and 72 h. The number of cells was determined via MTS assay and the proliferating cells were investigated by bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) assay.Results/Key findings. Of the Caco-2 cells, 30-50 % remained viable, while the NOKs showed 110-120 % survival when treated with 5 mg ml-1 astaxanthin. The Caco-2 cells showed distinct structural shrinkage when treated with the same concentration of astaxanthin. Fluorescent labelling of the DNA of the proliferative cells with BrdU showed a significant decrease in the number of the proliferative Caco-2 cells when the concentration of astaxanthin was increased to 5 mg ml-1. CONCLUSION: The natural astaxanthin from X. dendrorhous, at an appropriate concentration, is effective in terminating the viability of, or retarding the proliferative activity of, Caco-2 cells, without harmful effects on NOKs.

Flavobacterium tistrianum sp. nov., a gliding bacterium isolated from soil.

A novel gliding bacterial strain, GB 56.1T, was obtained from soil at the Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve, in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand; the strain was characterized using a polyphasic approach. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, yellow, rod shaped and devoid of flagella, but showed gliding motility. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences found that GB 56.1T was a member of the genus Flavobacterium and that the strain shared the highest sequence similarities with Flavobacterium nitrogenifigens (98.4 %), Flavobacterium anhuiense(98.3 %) and Flavobacterium ginsenosidimutans (97.9 %). The similarities of the sequences of all other species of the genus Flavobacterium were below 97.4 %. The major respiratory quinone of strain GB 56.1T was MK-6; fatty acids were iso-C15:0, C16:1ω6c/C16:1ω7c, C16:0 and C16:0 3-OH. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, an unidentified amino lipid and four polar lipids. The DNA G+C content of this strain was 34.2 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness of GB 56.1T was highest against F.anhuiense, with a value of 37.6 %. On the basis of morphological, physiological and chemotaxonomic characteristics, DNA-DNA hybridization relatedness and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, we conclude that strain GB 56.1T represents a novel species, for which the name Flavobacterium tistrianum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is GB 56.1T (=TISTR 1612T =KCTC 42679T).